About Enraged, Rattled, and Wronged

Psychological entitlement, the sense that some individuals or groups are inherently worthier of certain privileges, is an overlooked but essential feature of persistent inequality. In the political climate that gave rise to and resulted in Donald Trump's presidency, confusion, rage, and feelings of victimization linger among those who felt empowered by the validation felt with him into office--feelings that existed before and will continue to exist after his presidency.

Enraged, Rattled, and Wronged confronts psychological entitlement in its many forms. In exploring how members of advantaged groups come to understand their belief in their own worthiness relative to those in disadvantaged groups, Kristin Anderson channels her research and expertise in prejudice and discrimination to ask critical questions of the current political and social climate. What happens to entitled people when they feel pushed aside? How does their inflated sense of deservingness make them vulnerable to manipulation by the demagogues who use them, blinding them to the negative outcomes that are often paradoxical? What are they willing to tear down as they scramble to keep their grip on the status and power they believe are rightfully theirs? How has entitled resentment played out historically, and how do these events lend themselves to both the predictable and unpredictable manifestations of power grabs that we see now?

Drawing from a wealth of timely examples and empirical literature, Anderson situates this anger as backlash against the social progress. Citing historical moments such as the rage of whites directed at newly freed African Americans in the South during Reconstruction, or the anger of the entitled when women have attempted to control their reproduction, Anderson traces this phenomenon over time and delineates the link between individual-level processing of psychological deservingness and macro-level problems that impede equality, concluding with a call for action for to dominant group members to join the vibrant movements for social progress that have emerged in recent years.